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Asuka wasn't sure how long she'd been running that maze. It had seemed like forever to her. Just endless circles, following the commands of an AI, trying to get out. She could handle the puzzles and traps. She'd hated the isolation. Finally, she'd been spat back out into the welcome (the fact that she'd been relieved to see them disturbed her) corridors of Stacy again. She ran a hand through her hair with an irritated huff. How long had that taken, anyway? She needed to check up on her training and she needed to get back in the saddle. Quickly.

She headed off on the run - the sensoriums were calling her name. Grounded or not, she intended to take a virtual X-Wing out for a spin. It was the work of a few moments to call it up. She spent a few minutes circling the virtual craft, the virtual hangar deck stretching out white and empty around her. Yeah, she'd get in trouble if she got caught, but she wasn't going to get caught (although part of her was afraid of that and part of her wanted to go and see Arha). She shoved those feelings away. She wanted to have some fun first.

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Asuka nodded as she began to clamber up the ladder to her cockpit. "Fine, fine! Let's just get going!"

She slipped into the seat and strapped in, starting to go through the checklist - flipping switches, checking power readouts. Everything needed to be just so before she could actually take off.

Kira jogged his way over to the Freedom, slipping a foot into the stirrup that hung from the open cockpit and giving it a sharp tug. The action activated the winch that pulled him up the Mobile Suit to its chest. The young man quickly slipped into the pilot's seat, sealing his helmet with the flight suit, and began the system boot-up.

It'd been so long since he'd done this in reality - watching the numbers and symbols fly across the screen - but this simulation might as well have been real.

He flexed and curled his fingers as they laid on the controls and he nudged the pedal down with his foot. "Kira Yamato, Freedom - heading out!"

"Rogue Four - four lit and in the green! Let's rock!" She powered up her repulsorlifts and then shot forward out of the hangar and into the inky blackness of space. Almost immediately, she kicked her throttle wide open, sending her craft into a series of loops, dives and twirls.

The Freedom followed her X-Wing, color spreading over its body as the Phase Shift armor hissed to life. Kira had to admit that there was something reassuring and liberating about the act of flying that a part of him had missed - at least, until the shooting started.

Asuka seemed to have a good handle on her machine and maneuverability, from how she was showing off - still, he managed to keep right on her wing through her maneuvers.

Asuka glanced over her shoulder, watching as the Freedom kept up with her. "Not bad! What else can that thing do?"

She was honestly curious. She wasn't sure how practical the thing would be in a dogfight.

"It'd... probably be easier to show you than to tell you," Kira admitted, keeping on her tail as he made sure the weapon systems were active. Time to test out his upgrades.

After all, they didn't have much frame of reference for the technical things, right?

"OK! So show me!" Asuka rolled out of his way and fell in ext to him. She eyed the robot through her canopy as she kept her own craft on a straight and level course.

"...all right." Kira had been intending to just follow Asuka's lead here - to see how the girl flew while he tested the OS changes - but if she wanted him to direct the scenario then he could oblige. He curled and flexed his fingers for a moment before gripping the controls and thinking a command to Stacy.

A cluster of silhouettes blinked into view several kilometers down the starfield - a group of fifteen GINNs. The pilot took a breath, closing his eyes for a moment; even if it was a simulation it still felt real. He keyed his communicator. "Watch the missiles at range; if they get close they have beam sabers."

Kira pushed the throttle forward, the blue-black wings of his Gundam spreading behind him as the craft shifted into its Hi-MAT maneuverability mode, and the plasma cannons embedded within slid over its shoulders.

Then the GINNs opened fire and he dove, spinning and weaving through deadly green rain.

Asuka pushed her throttle up to maximum and dove after Kira, staying on his 'wing', so to speak. She kept an eye on the mobile suits - they were using energy weapons, which was probably bad news for her. But she wasn't going to get hit. Grinning, she shot after Kira, pulling of targeting information on one of the GINNs. She peeled away, going after one near the edge of their formation. As her HUD flickered green, she squeezed the trigger, sending pulses of red energy zipping down range.

Now this was fun.

Asuka's peeling away also marked her as a target for the ZAFT machines, and even as the deadly red light shot through vacuum, her target was already launching a volley of missiles from ports on its legs - naturally, that didn't stop it from getting hit square in the "chest" and exploding. Of course, its two nearest comrades opened fire as well, adding their own totals to a deadly swarm that was homing in on the girl's X-Wing.

"Watch out!" Kira spun around, drawing the suit's beam rifle and snapping off a quick quartet of shots that intercepted some of the projectiles mid-flight, detonating them prematurely and giving Asuka a bit more breathing room.

In the same breath, he squeezed another trigger, and the cannons over his shoulders erupted red-white fire that took the heads clean off the GINNs that had fired their missiles at his wingman, leaving them drifting but otherwise intact.

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